I recently watched the movie As Dreamers Do, a biographical movie about Walt Disney. If you are a die hard Disney fan, I’d recommend it watching it, I watched it on Hulu Plus. I enjoyed the movie despite some bad acting.

It goes over the early years of his life before he moved to Hollywood, CA. Overall, I would have liked to see more of Walt’s life in movie form, this movie just covered up to about 1923.

I already knew a lot about Walt Disney’s early life, but it really hit home the fact that Walt Disney had struggled a lot before actually getting successful, and if Walt was just two years older there would have been a very real chance that he could have been killed in World War I. He wanted to enlist in the army when he was 16 years, but couldn’t because of his age. The movie also highlighted the strong bond that Walt had to his brother Roy.

I was in the process of reading a Walt Disney biography a few weeks ago, but I didn’t get very far into it, I’m feeling more inclined to pick it back up. 🙂

This is a window display in Epcot (German Pavilion) at the Karamel Kuche store – which is a Werther’s caramel shop, they make fresh caramel candies, dipped apples, caramel popcorn, cookies and more. It’s really a wonderful little shop, well worth stopping in and seeing what they have to offer. Perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth.

I love celebrating at Disney (Walt Disney World). Spending your birthday or anniversary at Disney just seems so much more special (dare I say, magical even?), elevating it to a “Disney Birthday” or “Disney Anniversary”. Heck, you can celebrate anything at Disney, even an un-birthday! Why not? Being at Walt Disney World gives you a little room to be silly, to be yourself, and to have fun.

Part of the fun is planning ahead of time. Choosing where to go and what to do, where to eat, what rides or shows to see. Whether or not to book a special tour, VIP experience, or signature dinner? Which Disney Resort to stay at? There are so many different experiences waiting to be had, you can plan something that is just right for you or the honoree. If you enjoy some added attention, you can get celebration buttons at your Disney Resort or at Guest Relations, they say things like: “I’m Celebrating”, “Just Married”, “1st Visit”, “Happy Birthday”, etc. Cast members usually acknowledge your celebration if they see your button. Every once in a while a cast member might really do something to make your birthday even more special, I particularly love the small Disney birthday cupcakes.

View from the room on one of our trips

Boardwalk Bakery – Celebration Cakes Available

Just being at Disney for my birthday is amazing, whether it’s eating quick service Japanese food and watching Illuminations, or eating at Cosmic Ray’s inside the Magic Kingdom and watching Sonny Eclipse at midnight as it turns my birthday! I’ve spent many birthdays just being at the parks and riding rides, or just going to dinner. Nothing fancy at all, just being there. Nothing beats the Strawberry Shortcake at Fort Wilderness.

Strawberry Shortcake (Best Birthday Dessert EVER)

As I’ve gotten older, I try to plan something special for our birthdays each year. With our Disney Vacation Club timeshare, it makes it easy and affordable to book a hotel room with our points for our birthdays or anniversary, or for anytime we want to stay at WDW, like for Flower and Garden Festival or Food and Wine Festival.

Magic Kingdom – After Closing

Special tours can be pricey, you can check out what Disney offers at their website. We did the Wanyama Safari last year, it’s a tour around Animal Kingdom Lodge with a zoologist/safari guide, and then a Signature Dining Experience at Jiko.

Jiko Meal

Jiko Dessert Trio

Wishes – Fireworks

A celebration is even more special with fireworks! Thankfully, Disney has that covered, you can enjoy fireworks everyday of the year at Walt Disney World.

I took some time to spoil myself a little while at Disney. I had a great pedicure at Ship Shape Salon. The location is great, it’s located between Yacht Club & Beach Club Resort hotels, and overlooks the Stormalong Bay Pool. The staff is very friendly and professional and I like this salon a lot. I feel a lot more comfortable getting a pedicure at Disney than I would elsewhere, I think that the level of service and friendliness is exceptional. Plus, I was able to walk in without an appointment, how awesome is that?

These are my two favorite colors that they offer, the nail polish brand is Spa Ritual, one on the left is called Thunder Road, the one on the right is called Love is in the Air. My last pedicure lasted about 6-7 weeks, not bad really.

If you are an annual passholder or DVC member you get 15% off, 20% gratuity is added after the discount. My pedicure was roughly $60 after tip.

Epcot is great for dining and drinking, there are so many options for restaurants. The countries are fun. I really love The Land because of the Living with The Land ride, I enjoy the plants and the tour of the greenhouses. The holidays are nice too, with excellent decorations and fireworks. Epcot is my husband’s clear favorite.

Osbourne Spectacle of Dancing Lights – Hollywood Studios

For me, it is a difficult choice to pick a favorite park. I absolutely love the Obsourne Lights, they are amazing. I enjoy eating at Sci-Fi Dine In and Mama Melrose’s especially. Star Wars weekends are great fun. And the “Frozen Summer” fireworks are excellent.

Magic Kingdom – Christmas Time

The Magic Kingdom is also awesome all year round. For the holidays, the castle is exceptionally beautiful. Plus, I love many of the rides at Magic Kingdom, even the cheesy slow rides or shows are classic, like Carousel of Progress, the Tiki Room, Country Bears, and the People Mover. Nothing is better than Extra Magic Hours!

Animal Kingdom Tree

I am least familiar with Animal Kingdom, perhaps because we aren’t early risers, and this park usually closes first. Although we’ve been here many times, we haven’t done as many of the attractions, and some don’t appeal to me, like Dinosaur or the Yeti coaster. We’ve eaten at several places, like Tusker House, Rainforest Cafe, and Yak & Yeti and enjoy it, and we like to see the animals, but I don’t have any sentimental attachment to this park. We were considering trying one of their special tours, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Not sure how many people have heard about the mysterious sinkhole at Epcot center. According to the story, the sinkhole is that area where The Odyssey Restaurant was built, and subsequently where they formed a small lake area and bridge walkways.

If you do a web search you can find stories and articles about the sinkhole. Basically before Epcot was built, the land in that spot was sinking, I believe they had vehicles parked there during the construction phase and they noticed the ground sinking.

After they discovered the sinkhole area, they changed design plans – moved some ideas around, and came up with what you see above. They reinforced the building and walkways with concrete pylons, anchored the monorail line to concrete pads, they loaded up the hole with concrete and formed this small lake as you can see above.

I had no idea about the backstory about the sinkhole until maybe a couple years ago.

Who would have even known since it’s looked exactly the same since Epcot was built 1982!

They are about $5 for a pack of 4. They are amazing and they taste so much better to me when they are cold, right out of the cold case. They also serve these at Boma, the buffet located at Animal Kingdom Lodge, but it seems silly to eat $45 dinner buffet just to have this dessert, and the ones on the buffet aren’t as cold, bummer.

I’m so glad they sell these at The Mara.

They are a little hard to describe, they remind me of butterscotch, they taste of chocolate and rum too (?) and are slightly soft, filled with a mousse and they have a little bit of cake at the bottom. They will melt in your mouth, they are so flavorful and sweet. I absolutely love them. Everyone needs to try these!

Yak & Yeti’s Cream Cheese Wonton dessert comes with strawberries and grilled pineapple chunks with a delicious sauce, with a small side of vanilla ice cream. The pineapple pieces are so juicy and sweet. It is really a unique dessert and worth a try.

I have yet to try their famous Mango Pie, I keep hearing good things about it, most of the servers will recommend it as well as the Wontons.

Just to toss it out there, I’m not really a fan of Avatar, it bugs me that they are dedicating a huge amount of resources to expanding Animal Kingdom to build an Avatar land. The Avatar expansion is already underway and construction has already started months ago. It’s unbelievable they waited to long to put more effort in doing the Star Wars expansion, they’ve had Star Wars weekends for so many years and it’s proven to be a real winner, Star Wars has been like the bread and butter of Hollywood Studios, and Avatar is relatively an unknown quantity in the parks – there is no Avatar presence, I think it’s going to be a big flop, just like their animal poop treats (they were selling edible treats that looked like various animal droppings – classy!) which no one will remember.

With the unexpected success and mob like following of Frozen, Disney has completely dropped everything to maximize on their Frozen profits, they added “Frozen Summer” to their entertainment at Hollywood Studios in order to attract crowds. They shut down the Norway ride to re-theme it as a Frozen ride, and immediately cleared way for the first expansion Epcot has had in years – a Frozen building for meet and greets…sigh. Don’t get me wrong, Frozen was a good movie; even Avatar was a good movie.

Hollywood Studios is honestly a mess. Who gives a toss about American Idol? I’m glad that is gone. I must be one of the few people who doesn’t watch reality TV, never have. Did they even sell any American Idol merchandise? They have added more VIP experiences, like dessert parties, tours, etc. to capitalize on stage shows and firework shows. I’m okay with that, I love fireworks and it’s nice for a change to see them put some money into doing fireworks at Hollywood Studios which everyone can enjoy.

Overall, I’m pretty sad that no one seemed to care one iota about John Carter, but everyone went gaga over Avatar and insane over Frozen. I loved the John Carter books, they are amazing and full of action and suspense. Too bad practically no one has read the books. I understand they have to build things that will make money, but I’m just so skeptical about Avatar. Give me Star Wars and Muppets anyday; build me a whole Muppets theme park and I’d be happy. The times are a changin’ and it feels like I’m getting old.